


picking up the pieces of my life (up off the floor)

by BookPirate



Series: i may be a mess but at least i'm a hot one [3]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternative Universe - No Magic, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-03
Updated: 2015-08-03
Packaged: 2018-04-12 18:32:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4490238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BookPirate/pseuds/BookPirate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emma Swan is just trying to get her step-sister Mary Margaret the plates she desperately wants for her wedding when her ex calls her. Killian Jones is just trying to get plates for his cousin's fiancee and hey who's that beauty in the corner crying?</p><p>Drabble based off a hot mess au post on tumblr</p>
            </blockquote>





	picking up the pieces of my life (up off the floor)

**Author's Note:**

> Third of five hot mess aus on tumblr. The prompt for this one was: 'i’m having a minor breakdown in the middle of bed bath and beyond and you’re a bewildered shopper who wants to buy plates but also to make sure i’m okay bc im wailing a little bit in the kitchenware section’ au
> 
> Title from 'Falling in Reverse' by Goodbye Graceful

Emma Swan supposed it had all started their freshman year of college, really, when Mary Margaret had met David who had lived across the hall from them in McCormick hall. He, of course, helped them move in, Regina having had to leave due to some political emergency or another. (You’d think being the mayor of a small town in Maine would be less hectic but there you go.)

It seemed only natural that David ‘Prince Charming’ Nolan would fall for Emma’s adoptive sister. Mary Margaret had been known as ‘Actual Disney Princess Mary Margaret Mills’ throughout high school, because she had enjoyed things like Home Ec and taking home strays that were more friendly to her than anyone else. (She had all but actually adopted Emma by the time they were sophomores, Regina’s signature being nothing but the official stamp that made them sisters by law).

So it was also only natural that Emma would be a little relieved that Mary Margaret now had some one else in her life to focus on, and to maybe let Emma breathe and feel more like an actual adult and less like an abandoned baby squirrel.

Once David and Mary Margaret became swept up in the honeymoon stage of their relationship, things for Emma went pretty well for a while. She enjoyed taking classes and being surrounded by strangers who didn’t know her as ‘that orphan’ or ‘the girl Regina Mills took pity on’. She was leading a very simple and quiet life, going to classes, reading, and working in the school’s cafeteria, but it was hers and she enjoyed it very much.

And then Neal swept into her life and scattered the newly pulled-together pieces like a goddamn hurricane.

After the smirks and whispers and danger that ended in a burst of flames built up by sparks of illegal activity and a pregnancy scare, Emma couldn’t even function. It took David and Mary Margaret dragging her out of bed every morning for the spring semester of her junior year, being put on academic suspension, and finally a literal slap in the face from her adoptive mother for her to snap out of it. She managed to slip back into anonymity and graduate with, well, not honors but at least a GPA that allowed her to go into social work training. (Because she was going to be damned if she didn’t make sure personally kids like her were going to be as cared for as she was by the family that chose her).

But the past five years had finally caught up with Emma, and she was contemplating all of this in the corner of a Bed, Bath, & Beyond, trying to muffle her cries with her hand as she smashes her crappy flip-phone under the heel of her boot, in front of the very plates she’s trying to buy as a wedding present for her sister and David. She thinks they’re the ugliest plates in the world and Neal calling her just as she was reaching for them seems to cement this fact.

How Neal had gotten her number, she doesn’t know, but maybe it’s time to give in and let Mary Margaret put her on the family plan she shares with David and his siblings.

“Um, excuse me? Lass?”

Emma’s head shoots up and feels her cheeks turn a brilliant red as she takes in the stranger standing awkwardly in front of her. He’s dark-haired, scruffy, wearing leather, and has blue eyes the color of the sea on a good day, holy hell. It was like someone above has noticed her crappy day and is deciding to make it ten times worse by letting a man who’s better looking than anyone she’s ever seen witness her breakdown.

She scrubs roughly at her cheeks. “What?”

The man’s brow furrows and he scratches at the stubble on his chin as he examines her. More tears leak out and she dashes them away quickly, wishing the man would just disappear already.

He finally reaches into his back pocket, pulling out a handkerchief and handing it to her. “I don’t mean to pry, but you look like you’re having a bit of a rough day.”

And he has an accent. Perfect.

“I’m fine.” She stares at him straight on, trying to fake it until she makes it, but then her lower lip begins quivering and she finally gives her dignity up for a lost cause and starts crying into the handkerchief. “No I’m not.”

“I’m sorry, lass. Is there anything I can do?” And he looks like he genuinely wants to help so that’s probably why she leans forward into his open arms and clings to the collar of his jacket as she sobs out the whole story, starting with her freshman year of college.

“And then he convinced me to break into the professor’s office and steal the test answers so we could sell them to the other students. I got caught and he sold me out to protect himself. I was put on academic probation and was suspended for three weeks and almost didn’t graduate.” She’s still sniffling a little but has mostly stopped crying as she leans against him. They’re now sitting on the floor in front of those damn plates.

“But you did graduate,” he says gently, nudging her shoulder with his.

She gives him a watery smile. “That’s true. Only because of my sister and her fiancee, though. They dragged me to class every day for a semester. I didn’t want to go but they pushed me through it. And now they’re getting married and I’m crying over my ex in a Bed, Bath, & Beyond.” She sighs.

“We’ve all been there, lass, trust me.” He sighs, too, and drops his head against the display behind them.

“You’ve had a breakdown in a home improvement store?” she asks incredulously.

He chuckles, running his hand through his stubble in a way she has decided is adorable. “Not a home improvement store, no. I had a breakdown in a gardening store. I ran into my ex and her husband and child, waited until they left the store, and then curled up behind the daffodils and cried like a wee child.”

She reaches over and grabs his hand. “She didn’t deserve you.”

“And your ex didn’t deserve you.” He smiles at her and she finally feels like he may be right.

She releases a breath that she didn’t realize she was holding and suddenly feels twenty pounds lighter. “Thank you, … ?”

“Killian,” he shifts their hands so they’re shaking them instead, “Killian Jones.”

“Emma Swan. It’s nice to meet you, Killian. I’m sorry for monopolizing your Saturday.” She begins to stand up, and he scrambles over himself trying to get up and help her at the same time.

She giggles at the sight and he smiles again. “To be honest, love, meeting you has been worth it. I only needed plates for a wedding in the first place.”

“Who’s getting married?” she asks as she reaches for the plates she knows Mary Margaret has been lusting for.

“My cousin Dave. He’s getting married to his university sweetheart in a week, and he’s asked me to be a groomsman. The bride apparently really wants these plates because he’s asked me to get them.” He reaches for the same plates she is.

Emma’s hand freezes on the box. “You have a cousin named Dave who’s getting married next week to a woman who loves these ugly-ass plates.”

He looks confused. “Yes.”

“David Nolan?” She squeezes her eyes shut tight and hopes she’s right.

There’s a moment of silence but then there’s a “How on earth did you know?”

She beams at him as she opens her eyes. “He’s marrying my sister, Mary Margaret. You’re looking at the maid of honor.”

His answering smile is as bright as hers. “Well, isn’t that just a hell of a coincidence.” He searches her gaze for something, and apparently finds it. “Would you like to go out to dinner with me, Emma?”

Her breath freezes and she drops the plates into her basket with a clatter. “Yes. But I get to buy these plates.”

He laughs. “But what will I do for a wedding present?”

She winks at him and laces her arm through his. “You know, Mary Margaret’s also really into this whisk set. I think it’s over this way…”

(She ends up having to buy the plates again because they shatter when she drops them after he kisses her at her car.)

(Two years later he special orders them for their wedding because they’re ‘lucky’. She teases him but agrees all the same.)


End file.
